Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Israel’s attorney general to approve deporting relatives of attackers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.

The prime minister’s office released on Wednesday a letter addressed to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit which included an endorsement of the measure.

“I believe that this will dramatically reduce terrorist activities against Israel,” the prime minister wrote, adding that “lone wolf profile terrorists” have carried out many of the attacks in recent months, and that assailants sometimes come from families who encourage the attacks.

Netanyahu asked the attorney general for “legal opinion” to allow the “procedure of transferring families who assist terror to the Gaza Strip.” Mandelblit recently stated during cabinet discussions that deporting terrorists’ families to Gaza contravenes Israeli law, as well as international law. The measure was proposed by Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Yisrael Katz.

“Our job as a government is to save lives, and the deportation of families of terrorists will reduce the motivation of those minors who are carrying out attacks,” said Katz on Sunday, after the attorney general’s opposition was made known.

On Monday, Netanyahu said he and many ministers support deporting “families of terrorists” to Gaza. He added he was interested in continuing to discuss the issue with legal experts because he believes deportation to Gaza will deter “potential terrorists”, Haaretz reported.

On Tuesday night, a young Palestinian set himself on fire in the southern Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip has been seeing an increase in suicides since last year, due to hard live conditions. 1.8 million people face an Israeli blockade and closed borders. Last year the United Nations warned that Gaza could become uninhabitable for residents within five years.